What if, one were to wire up the tracking motor controls
on a Quickcam
Orbit to drive a robot platform.?. In Windows mode, the
automatic
face tracking becomes automatic person tracking. :-)
The Linux
driver supports the pan/tilt capabilities, but I don't
expect the pan/tilt is hardware-based, but that's reasonably
easy to overcome in software.

Received the P.A.M.
samples yesterday. Will start playing with them over the
weekend.

This is proving a lot more complicated than expected...
Matching up the ink with a compatible cartridge distribution
mechanism is beyond the scope of my own expertise. I'm
electrical, not a chemical engineer.

That said though, conductive ink pens exist, and older
pen plotter printers exist. Should be much easier to adapt
the pen to the printer. It won't be as high-res as a more
modern ink-jet printer, but it should work. Proof of
concept is all I'm aiming for at this point.

Also, I'm pulling together some leads to see what it
would take to convert common desktop ink-jet printers into PCB
design prototyping systems, using various forms of conductive inks and
adhesives. What better way to spin off a quick
prototype than print the trace directly onto paper or mylar,
"glue" the SMT devices in place, add some TiNi
actuators and just add power?

Who knows? I may yet create the world's first
radio-controlled (or even semi-UAV) paper airplane!

I've been playing around on paper (if you'll pardon the
pun) with Origami Robotics. Very basic stuff, but
the general idea is to use Origami folding techniques as the
joint+actuator; when you pull the edges toward each other,
the joint moves...